Will My Hearing Ever Return?

The Healing Ability of Your Body

The human body commonly can heal scratches, cuts, and broken bones, even though some wounds take longer than others. But when it comes to fixing the tiny little hairs in your ear, you’re out of luck. So far, at least. Although scientists are working on it, humans don’t repair the cilia in their ears like animals can. That means you may have permanent hearing loss if you injure the hearing nerve or those little hairs.

When Is Hearing Loss Permanent?

When you find out you have loss of hearing, the first thing that most people ask is will I get it back? And the response is, it depends. Fundamentally, there are two kinds of hearing loss:

Damage based loss of hearing: But around 90 percent of hearing loss is accounted for by another, more common cause. This kind of hearing loss, which is usually irreversible, is known as sensorineural hearing loss. This is how it works: When hit by moving air (sound waves), tiny little hairs in your ears move. Your brain is good at changing these vibrations into the sounds you can hear. But your hearing can, over time, be permanently damaged by loud noises. Injury to the inner ear or nerve can also cause sensorineural hearing loss. A cochlear implant may help restore hearing in some cases of hearing loss, especially extreme cases.

Loss of hearing caused by an obstruction: When there’s something obstructing your ear canal, you can exhibit all the symptoms of hearing loss. Debris, earwax, and tumors are just a few of the things that can cause a blockage. Your hearing usually returns to normal once the obstruction is cleared, and that’s the good news.

A hearing test will help you determine whether hearing aids will help improve your hearing.

Treatment of Hearing Loss

So currently there’s no cure for sensorineural hearing loss. But it might be possible to get treatment for your loss of hearing. The following are some ways that getting the appropriate treatment can help you:

Ensure your overall quality of life is unaffected or remains high.

Stay engaged socially, keeping isolation at bay.

Protect and preserve the hearing you have left.

Successfully deal with the symptoms of hearing loss you might be experiencing.

Stop mental decline.

This approach can take many forms, and it’ll normally depend on how extreme your loss of hearing is. One of the simplest treatments is also one of the most common: hearing aids.

How is Hearing Loss Treated by Hearing Aids

Hearing aids help the ear with hearing loss to pick up sounds and perform the best they can. When your hearing is hindered, the brain strains to hear, which can exhaust you. As scientist gain more knowledge, they have recognized a greater chance of mental decline with a persistent lack of cognitive input. Your cognitive function can begin to be recovered by using hearing aids because they allow your ears hear again. As a matter of fact, wearing hearing aids has been shown to slow cognitive decline by as much as 75%. Background noise can also be tuned out by modern-day hearing aids allowing you to focus on what you want to hear.

The Best Protection Is Prevention

Hopefully, if you get one thing from this knowledge, it this: you should safeguard the hearing you’ve got because you can’t count on recovering from loss of hearing. Certainly, if you have something stuck in your ear canal, more than likely you can have it removed. But that doesn’t decrease the risk from loud noises, noises you may not even think are loud enough to be all that harmful. That’s why taking the time to safeguard your ears is a good idea. The better you safeguard your hearing today, the more treatment options you’ll have when and if you are eventually diagnosed with loss of hearing. Treatment can help you live a great, full life even if recovery isn’t a possibility. Contact a hearing care expert to find out what your best choice is.